Dana Cartwright Mission 1: Stiletto (21 page)

He looked much older than she remembered. She stood for a few moments next to him, honoring his reminiscing. He told her about a memory he had of sailing on another world.
 

She smiled and let him finish.
 

“Doctor, you probably don’t remember me,” Dana began.

Ankara grinned. “I most certainly do. You are Dana Cartwright, DOC’s girl! How old are you now? Twenty-five?”

“Twenty-four, Doctor.”

“How is he? I keep meaning to visit him at Capitol City. Still at the Medical Center?”

“Yes, and still taking cases,” she honestly admitted, “but he’s failing, and unwilling to come to terms with it.”

“Sorry to hear that. I know that feeling myself.” He shook his head in the face of her disbelief. “Well, my dear, what brings you to San Diego? The medical conference?”

“Actually, no. Captain Ensoto suggested I…”

“Ensoto! You met up with Akihiro?”

“Yes, sir. Yesterday, just before
Navitor
returned to patrol.”

Ankara scowled. “Here for the Meeting of the Masters, I’ll wager. And he didn’t stop in to say hello.”

Dana patiently waited for the aging doctor to finish. “Captain Ensoto has given me a letter of recommendation for the Academy. They will waive all my science tests and classes if you will send a letter also.”

Ankara smirked. “As I recall, you could teach those science classes. DOC said you aced your medical board exams.”

She shrugged. “Having a photographic memory helps.”

“Like Solon!” Ankara chuckled. “A walking computer!” Then he scowled. “Why aren’t you teaching at the medical academy?”

“I want to fly.” It sounded rather lame now, saying it to a Star Service hero.

Jake Ankara stared into her eyes, as dusk fell, but said nothing. They walked back to an office building and he led her to a small lounge area in the lobby, inviting her to sit for a spell.

“DOC Cartwright should… Not I.”

“He won’t approve,” Dana mumbled. “He wants me to follow in his footsteps. I want to soar.”

Ankara laughed, but not at her. “Vince Syzek said something like that… A long time ago.”
 

He didn’t believe her. Dana could tell.

“Is there a man in your life?”

“Not anymore,” Dana frowned and looked at her boots.

“So you want to escape? Don’t be ashamed of it. Right after my divorce is when I made the decision to ship out. My wife got everything but my medical kit. Surprising they didn’t want that, too.” Ankara chuckled and nodded understandingly. “So there is a man?”

“He’s with SSID; but wants no entanglements.”

Ankara pursed his lips. “Oh… Hard to escape SSID.”

She nodded. “I need a new dream. I can’t stay at Capitol City; and I don’t want to follow in DOC’s shadow.”

Ankara nodded. “But there’s something more.” He pointed at her heart, knowing it wasn’t where human hearts were located. “You want to find your parents.”

How did he know that? Dana wondered if DOC had already contacted him.

“They were in the Star Service, weren’t they?” She guessed, “You knew them?”

“The records are sealed,” Ankara reminded, “To protect you.”
 

“From what?” Dana groaned, “I’m twenty-four… I need to know who I am.”

“I’ll write a letter of recommendation.” Ankara got up to leave. “Good luck with your dream.”

Dana fought back tears as she watched him cross the lobby to a lift.
 

Why wouldn’t he tell me? He has to know. What is this big secret about my birth parents?

Dejected and exhausted, Dana returned to her apartment, filled with doubts.

“Am I doing the right thing?” She asked the Dana Cartwright reflected in the mirror.

The answer was, “I don’t know, but it’s better than teaching at medical school.” She dimmed the lights and stretched out on the bed, still fully clothed.

“Doctor Cartwright to Intake: code red. Doctor Dana Cartwright: code red.”

She bolted from the doctors’ lounge, went through decon, scrubbing and changing in record time. She could see the EMTs setting up the coffin already in the ER exam room, with a trio of android nurses swarming about it.

“Grant?”
 

The EMT waived a gloved hand at her. “Alphan female — attempted suicide.”

Dana took a deep breath and went to the bedside.

The young woman, barely twenty years Earth standard, looked ghostly pale.

“Lost a lot of blood…” Grant added, before he saluted and left the intake.

Both of the woman’s wrists had deep slashes. Dana went to work on the right first, even before the ANs had the Star Service uniform stripped off and the diaper on.

The diagnostic readings were in the critical range as Dana tackled the left wrist, the more severely wounded. “She’s right-handed,” Dana deduced, mumbling, and then she called to the controller.

“Computer? Can we transfuse Alphan RH negative?”

“No donors are available,” came in response.

Dana thought of Kieran, and Ambassador Cray, both RH positive. She was about to ask that the Star Service Academy cross check for donors, when a stabbing pain in her left side — her wounded side — almost incapacitated her.

“Oh!” Dana screamed, “I need an assist. Stat!” She clung to the coffin. The memory flowed before her eyes -- as vividly as if she’d been there.

Alley Song’s mate, an Alphan Star Service Ensign, was serving as navigator aboard the
SS Sungrazer,
when they took a direct hit from an Imperial weapon. She felt the agony and horror as he screamed Alley’s name when he died.

Dana felt the same intensity of the emotions. She shook as Doctor Trentor pulled her away from the coffin, steering her toward the emergency room next door.

And then DOC was there, taking charge, helping her up onto the diagnostic bed, and running tests.

“I can’t feel my hands!” Dana cried, staring at the welts that had formed on both her wrists.

“An empathic response!” DOC declared, readying a DIA-dermal injector and pressing the tube against Dana’s neck.

The fog grew thick and she peacefully slid down into it.

Dana moped around the apartment after being released from MCE. Her wrists ached and the welts were still visible. She read up on empathic responses, but no one had touched upon how or why she might have suddenly awakened to the possible talent.

One thing was certain; she needed to make some decisions.

After reading Doctor Dengali’s report over and over, she decided that Francis Calagura’s suggestion was the best.

Only three Earth cryogenics labs would accept private individual reserves. She contacted all three, decided on the Northern Hemisphere Labs, and made an appointment. There was, surprisingly, an opening that very day.

Dana MAT’d over and stared up at the impressive building, a carryover from the old brick-and-mortar style architecture of old Earth. Of course, the facade was all faked. No one built with brick-and-mortar anymore.

They treated her amazingly well at the reception desk and had her enter a lounge with several cubicles to read through the instructions on a viewer and respond to specific questions.

She agreed with most of the rules on egg and sperm bank deposits, but stumbled on the last question.

“In the event of your death, do you wish to release your egg bank reserve to science for experimentation?”

She scoffed, wondering silently, “Had my parents answered yes? Was that how it all began?” Saying no meant her eggs would be destroyed. That seemed the logical thing to do, since she carried a DNA mutation. Yet -- someday in the not so distant future — science and geneticists might find it useful.

“Stuck on that one?” The woman at the kiosk beside Dana asked.

She glanced over at the beautiful, young Asian
 
Star Service officer, seeing an incredible resemblance to Kyoko Dey-Cartwright, DOC’s second wife.

“The ethical dilemma,” the woman said, “I’m struggling with that, too.”

Dana nodded. “As a medical doctor, I see the need, but what if…”

“Yeah, a big what if… I’m Lt. Emyko Dey,” the woman offered her right hand.

Dana smiled but didn’t reach to take it right away. “Doctor Dana Cartwright…”

There came a hint of a smile on the woman’s face. “DOC’s girl?”

Dana blinked.

“We’re cousins. How incredible! Kyoko Dey is my aunt.”

“Is?”

“She’s still teaching at Station Four,” Emyko Dey answered.

Dana stared. “I thought she passed — long ago?”

“Oh, she’s fine. If you ever get out that way, pay her a visit.”

Dana found it incredible, wondering how it could be that Kyoko’s file clearly showed she had died of an accidental overdose. Was it all a rouse? Had the records been ‘doctored’?

“Emyko? Can we trust future scientists on their ethics?” Dana asked. “I’m not sure we can trust them now.”

Emyko shrugged. “The ones I know are trustworthy.”

Dana’s face contradicted her. “There have been many violations.” She didn’t go into details. “I don’t want them to have access to anything. I’m saying, no. Destroy the eggs if I am gone or incapacitated.”

Dana felt that was the logical thing to do. That way no one would — no child would — endure the trauma she’d suffered.
 

She answered the question and submitted her final form.

An android nurse soon came and called her to enter the surgery center.
 

She waved to Emyko.

Emyko responded with a big grin. “Hope to see you again, cousin.”

Dana felt an elation she’d never before experienced. Having family… A cousin…

“Emyko?” She called. “What ship are you on?”

“Right now I’m here at Station One. I was aboard the
Stargazer
.”

Dana sadly recalled Alley Song and her mate. “Did you know Ensign Song?”

“Oh, yes… He often manned the helm on the bridge.”

“They took a direct hit. He was killed. I treated his mate. She attempted suicide,” Dana answered.

“Oh, my…”

“I’ll stay in touch,” Dana promised. “Hope to be at the Star Service Academy Coronado.”

Emyko offered a smile. “Great…”

After the medical procedure, Dana wept, though she couldn’t exactly explain why. Maybe it was some hormonal thing. Maybe the finality of knowing the only offspring she would ever have would be in-vitro conception. It was a big decision; one she had to make alone.

She decided on a drink and requested a transfer to Patriarchs to have one of Taylor’s Betelgean-Blue mojitos.

As he set the drink before her, he asked, “What’s wrong, Doc?”

She wiped her cheek. “I’m leaving, Taylor.”

“Forever?”

“I’ve signed on with the Star Service Academy. I’m now Cadet First Class Dana Cartwright.
 

He scoffed, “Kind of a demotion.”

She chuckled. “Yeah! However, you told me to find a new dream. I did.”

“Well, what did you decide?”

“I want to fly.”

Taylor grinned. “That’s great, Doctor. Good for you! Congratulations. Let’s celebrate.” He set a second drink before her. “I always wanted to be a ship captain.”

“So did I,” Dana giggled, watching as he set a fresh drink down though she’d barely touched the other, “but first I need to learn the basics. I’ve never flown even a shuttle before.”

Taylor patted her arm. “You’ll do fine.”

Francis Calagura watched as Dana packed up her few personal items from her office into a tote bag. Both her hands were weak still, and he’d offered to help.

“You don’t have much,” he realized.

“I’m not a collector like DOC,” Dana admitted.

He fell silent for a long minute. “Are you sure about this? A leave of absence for two years gives you full medical privileges at all the Medical Centers. Resigning is very permanent…”

Dana stopped and looked at her scarred wrists. “But I can’t function like this, Francis.”

“Take two years… I insist.”

She sighed. “All right. Enter it as a leave of absence. If you insist.”

“I do insist. Your medical credentials give you access to stations, too, by the way.” Calagura winked. “So you can visit The Viewery.”

That made Dana grin.

Calagura fretted. “Being an empath might prove rather beneficial. You just need some training. Colonel Jai gave you memories. That must have opened up your empathic gateways.”

Dana nodded.

Francis yawned. “My shift is almost over. Do you need help at home?”

“Already packed and shipped.”

He chewed his lower lip. “Where are you going?”

“I’ve submitted my application to Star Service Academy and taken an apartment near the campus. I’ll take the entrance exams and then… Who knows?”

“Have you chosen a major?”

“Not yet. Starting with basic flight training. Probably will specialize in computer science. Computers don’t scream.”

He chuckled at a devious thought. “Maybe you should visit Galaxea and learn to tune out the emotions.”

Dana shrugged. “Actually, you’re the third person who has suggested that.”

“Did DOC?”

“No.” She fought back a retort. “He doesn’t understand my desire to find my birth parents. He doesn’t understand anything I say. Only Captain Ensoto seemed to. And Doctor Garcia.”

Calagura frowned. “What about me?”

Dana studied her friend. “You’ve been great, Francis! I can’t thank you enough.” She hugged him.

He held it longer than intended then apologized, admitting, “I’m sure going to miss you.” He planted a kiss on her right cheek. “Stay in touch. Let me know where you end up.”

She promised to as she slung the strap of the tote bag over her shoulder and took a last look around. “Guess you’ll pull more overtime,” Dana teased to lighten the mood.

“MCE has already begun to search for new residents. It’s actually good timing. All the medical board exam results were just posted.”

Dana smiled. “I’ve always had impeccable timing.”

“Indeed.”

Dana gave him another quick hug then MAT transferred to the space docks.

Dana already had the maps memorized and so went straight to the private shuttle level, gate forty-two. She had a prepaid, VIP ticket.